Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 (v. 1)
Ultimate Spider-Man: Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 (v. 1)
Collecting the groundbreaking first year of Ultimate Spider-Man in one colossal trade paperback! High school, puberty, first dances - there are many pitfalls to being young. Compound these with intense personal tragedy and superhuman powers, and you can start to visualize the world of Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man. Following the murder of his uncle and the Green Goblin’s assualt on his high school, Peter finds himself on the brink of manhood: getting a job at the Daily Bugle to help support his widowed aunt and taking on extracurricular activities - such as bringing down the Kingpin, the head of organized crime in New York City! Collects Ultimate Spider-Man #1-13.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great Story, Bad Art
Ultimate Spider-Man retells the story of Spider-Man but in today’s times. Parker is no longer a photographer but a web designer/developer at the Daily Bugle. The story is a little bit different and the characters also look different. Uncle Ben has a pony-tail, yes, you heard right! The changes in the story is actually better than the original and more tightly woven. There are less random events happening and it flows better. For instance, Osborne and Otto are colleagues and they also created the radioactive spider. The artwork is not as good. I actually prefer old-style comic book art over this new glossy, polished style. There are way too many highlights in the drawings and they all look heavily airbrushed. I wouldn’t even consider it art. Mary Jane looks great, but I cannot say the same for Gwen who comes later in Volume 2. Volume one is mainly origin of Spider-Man and later dukes it out with the Green Goblin but you would not recognize him at all.
5 Stars Fantasic reboot of Spidey
I bought this collection (#1-2) quite by chance, while I was in New York on a holiday. I had been collecting only Batman and Superman trade paperbacks, and thought I would try a Spidey one. Boy, was I pleased I did!
The story revolves around a younger Peter Parker (15 years old) who is a high school student. He is friends with MJ (Gwen Stacey comes into the picture later) and works at the Bugle as a web designer, rather than a photographer (which is a nice change). There are some other differences compared to the Spacactular/Amazing Spiderman series all which make this Ultimate Spider-man series stand out.
The art work is fantastic, great colours, shades and a very modern technique without being cartoony. The story is great and the diaglogue is often very clever and funny and I loved reading it from start to finish. This collection actually inspired me to buy some more TBP in the series (#3-6, 13).
I really recommend this collection to anyone starting out or wanting a refreshing, funny and gripping storyline with awesome art.
5 Stars This Is The Only “Spider-Man” I Read
I think that what Bendis and Bagley have done here is simply Amazing. I think series is better than all of the other spidey titles out there. this is the first year of this title and I like it better than the individual “Arcs” that are being collected.
4 Stars Nice collection
I collect TPB and really enjoy the Ultimate Spider-man storyline. I was glad to see this come out in paperback so that I could keep my collection uniform.
The updated story is fun and I enjoy the Peter Parker/MJ relationship. The artwork is fantastic and the banter is funny. Highly recommended.
4/5 stars for lack of content from the HC edition.
Filed under: Top Spider-man Comics